Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The Aldelle Group – Sessions 38 and 39 – The Swamp Gate

Sessions 38 happened Wednesday, July 27, 2011. Sessions 39 happened Tuesday, August 2, 2011. I’m listing both here as there is no point between the two where Harkaitz could have stopped to update his journal.

This campaign used the Dyson’s Delve dungeon pages on A Character for Every Game as a starting point, but has now moved on to new material from the DM-in-training. I heartily recommend Dyson's Delve as a beginning adventure.

We have survived a night in the caves and I have fully healed my companions of the wasting attacks made by the derghodaemon. [Cast restoration three times to heal the CON damage.] During the night, a pair of omox (yet another form of demon in the form of an ooze) entered the room from deeper in the cave complex. They investigated the dead derghodaemon and then split up – on carrying the body back deeper and the other going out to the surface. Brek’nok’s spell and my stone wall seemed to keep them from noticing our camp in the back of the cave. Neither reappeared.

Past the derghodaemon cavern was a hallway leading to a pool of water. While investigating it, Wednesday set off a lightning bolt trap. This is not a good sign as she usually finds such traps with ease. [She rolled a 1, an automatic failure in our game.] I have just healed her and she is disarming the trap now and has verified there are no hidden doors in the hall. After she disarms the trap, we will explore the pool. I suspect it leads to another cavern or set of caverns. We shall see.

The pool did more than lead us to another cave – it was a cave in itself, completely filled with water. We explored it protected by a life bubble spell from Brek’nok. There was a pool exit at the far end of the right wall. As Wednesday started to swim across the chamber, the omox extruded from the ceiling where it had been waiting and attacked. Wednesday was heavily burned by its acid attacks and the water slowed us down, making the fight slow and dangerous.

Once Aziz lumbered into position below it, he attacked it with his holy scimitar, which was burning with fire of entanglement spell upon it. This kept the omox from fleeing into the next chamber and allowed Aziz to strike it multiple times for great effect, killing the foul thing.

As we caught our breath, Wednesday scouted up through the pool out of the flooded chamber we were in. (That is a strange thing to write. Brek’nok’s spell repertoire has been most hand since he joined us.) After sticking her head up out of the water, Wednesday returned and reported the next room was the gate room (the gate was the source of the light we could see in the next chamber). She also reported a meladaemon was guarding the gate alone. We prepared to attack.

[This is where Session 38 ended for the night. Session 39 started with us initiating the attack.]

Brek’nok started the fight by summoning an earth elemental beside the meladaemon. Wednesday’s shadow then moved in to attack. Once the daemon was occupied, Midnight used dimension door to jump into the room, bringing Frankie, Aziz, and myself. This is where we regretted Wednesday not being able to scout the room. Midnight appeared directly on a pressure plate that dropped the two side walls of the room, revealing a hydrodaemon behind each wall. I tried to stick with the plan and defensively cast my last holy smite, but failed due to the hydrodaemon adjacent to me. Aziz still struck the meladaemon [using smite evil], but he was off his stride and the wounds were shallow.

Then the meladaemon’s consumptive aura hit us hard and the hydrodaemons attacked.

I was able to mostly wall off one of the hydrodaemons, allowing Aziz, Frankie, and Wednesday’s shadow to concentrate on the meladaemon. This left Brek’nok and Wednesday fighting the second hydrodaemon. That hydrodaemon gutted Wednesday with a series of attacks and she would have died if I did not have the breath of life ready to revive and heal her. As it was, I saved her life but failed to bring her back to her feet. [Wednesday was down to -33 hp from the attacks and Harkaitz brought her back to -2 or so.] At the same time, Aziz struck the killing blows of the meladaemon and Frankie turned and did the same to the free hydrodaemon. This allowed Aziz the respite necessary to channel to power of Ra to heal us all, bringing Wednesday back to consciousness.

At this point we reorganized and turned on the remaining hydrodaemon, which had finally carved up the earth elemental blocking its escape. That hydrodaemon did not last long against our combined might, with Aziz dealing the killing blow.

Exhausted, I then cast summon planar ally to alert the forces of light that we had secured the Swamp Gate. A bralani appeared and, after receiving our report, transported us all (including Short John and the Red Keffiyehs) back to the lizardfolk village.

Now I am exhausted and it is time for me to sleep. Tomorrow I will commune with Ra and determine where our path goes next.

Morning, June 24, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, who shines His light and clears away the fog.

I have communed with Ra and my soul is full of his light and warmth.

We seem to have a choice of paths to follow. The Mountain Gate and the Uskar Gate are of equal priority. We still must deal with the lights in the sky. Lucien is the name of the vampire and the blue dragon of the desert is a danger to our homes. (That last bit applies mostly to Aziz and myself.) On the positive side, the storm giants did return the bones of the pilgrims to Uru, the Mountain Gate can be reached from the surface, and we will have time to return to Ttaeladra to resupply.

Later in the morning, June 24, Year of the Earth Rabbit

We have discussed what we know and where we think we should go. We have decided that tomorrow we will return to the corpse of the black dragon and resume following the zombie trail. We believe this will allow us to resolve the issue with the lights in the sky and make the swamps safe for Ashias’s people. Once we have done that, we will continue on to Ttaeladra for resupply and to have a few items crafted.

Today, we will spend the day with Ashias and his people as they prepare a feast in our honor. Short John is helping in the cooking preparations, “getting’ some ideas” as he puts it. The lizardfolk use strong spices in their cooking, similar but different to those used back home in Uru, so I am enjoying the tastes. The elves are drinking much water.

Noon, June 25, Year of the Earth Rabbit
Praise Ra, whose blessings shine upon us.

We have set out after to the corpse of the black dragon to follow the zombie trail. Before leaving the lizardfolk camp, Ashias called us aside and offered us a choice of one of the treasures of his people: two helms [one of underwater action and the other of telepathy] or a cloak [of resistance, +3]. We accepted the gift of the cloak and Wednesday now proudly wears it.

Lunch is something called a “gumbo” that Short John learned from the lizardfolk. It is a spicy and tasty soup, similar to a stew. It is quite tasty and quite spicy.

It was Midnight, but other than that, "Oh Beep!" was exactly what we were thinking! When I blew the concentration test to cast defensively at the beginning and Aziz rolled minimum on TWO damage rolls, I was certain several PCs were going to die in that fight - it was a real nail-biter. Then the meladaemon's aura hit us...

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I'm using this blog to chronicle the campaigns I am either running or playing in and occasionally posting things I'm writing. I started writing a sci-fi novel and journaled that effort. Two drafts are complete, but I'm stalled for a moment, so I'm writing other things for a while until I find my muse for that again.

So for the next while, expect a mixture of original stories and game session reports followed by a campaign chronicle for a superhero game I'm running this year.

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